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It was the end of summer and Rusty had
been working throughout his high school break for a tree
nursery in the Blue Hills. For the most part, the nursery employed
illegal workers from the Azores. In New Bedford, there was a large
Portuguese speaking community centered around fishing. Some also
found agricultural work. The Portuguese owner of the nursery took
advantage of this to cut corners and save on labor costs. This
summer there was a shortage of illegal labor so the owner hired a
white boy from the suburbs.
As many employers of undocumented
workers sometimes do, the owner of the nursery cheated his workers
out of their last paycheck. He knew they wouldn't complain to the
authorities for fear of deportation. This practice became so
ingrained in his procedures that he did the same to Rusty. At the
end of the sumer, with two weeks pay due, the owner refused to pay.
Now Rusty was just a kid and he didn't
know what to do about the situation. He was angry, but no one wanted
to help him over $150.00 dollars. He decided to discuss the problem
with his friend, Steve.
At the same time, Steve was
house-sitting for his girlfriend who was in Maine with her family.
Rusty road his bike over to Rosemary's house where he found Steve.
Together, they brainstormed and came up with a solution.
They spent the next few days gathering
the tools they would need: wire-cutters, rope, flashlights, coal,
gloves, portable shovels, branch cutters, an ax, a spike, a large
rubber covered mallet, wire, duct tape, salt, a change of clothes, a
bottle of water, paper towels, and two small hand-hoes. Prepared, on
the last day, they waited until nightfall.
They each dressed in camouflage pants,
black t-shirts, and black sneakers. They packed their tools into
their backpacks, mounted their bikes, and peddled off into the late
summer night. It was warm and humid as they made their way along the
dark and winding tree-covered streets which formed the five mile
route up to their destination in the Blue Hills.
The final road was a dirt road. They
ditched their bikes behind some shrubs, pulled out the charcoal, and
rubbed it on their faces and arms. Each donned his gloves. Rusty,
flashlight in hand, led the way to the fence. When they arrived,
Rusty pulled out the wire cutters.
"Is that necessary," Steve
asked. "We could just climb over the fence."
"Yeah, I suppose we could,"
said Rusty, "but that wouldn't cost the bastard anything.
Besides, lets take no chances. We don't want to leave any evidence
on the fence or risk getting stuck."
Rusty began cutting the links in the
chain-linked fence. After about 20 minutes of taking turns, they
managed to create a hole large enough for the two to pass through.
They crawled through, dragging their backpacks behind them, and then
continued their mission.
Rusty pointed to a section of the
nursery with the largest trees. The trees were about 8 feet tall and
very thin.
Using an ax, they felled their first
tree. Each tree had its roots bundled in a burlap bag, but the bags
were rather large and had been beneath the ground for some time.
This made them rather solid bags of root and dirt. Next to the stem
of the tree, they drove the spike into the bag using the mallet,
pounding away until a straight path about 8 inches deep had been
made. The spike was withdrawn and together they lifted the tree and
inserted its cut bottom into the hole they just made. While Steve
held up the tree, Rusty wrapped some wire around the bottom of the
tree's stem and the top of stem sticking up from the roots. Next he
wrapped the joint formed by the wire with duct tape. They shook the
tree and convinced themselves that it would stand for at least a few
days. Finally, they dug up dirt from around the tree and piled it
about the modified base of the tree.
"If it doesn't fall down,"
Rusty said, "it will start turning brown in a couple of days.
The shit-bag won't know what happened for some time. Let's do a few
more!" And so they did. A total of 4 trees were "modified."
"The longer it takes for him to
find out that something happened, the less chance he will be able to
trace it to us," Steve whispered.
"That's the idea," answered
Rusty.
Next they walked deep into a stand of
young trees. "No one will walk back here for a few days,"
noted Rusty. "Let's just give these trees a trim." Within
about a half hour, a dozen trees were turned into denuded poles.
After dealing with the older trees, the
two went over to a row of baby trees and poured a large quantity of
salt around their bases, hoping this would damage the saplings.
"OK, I've now been paid!"
announced Rusty. "Let's go!"
They worked their way back to the
fence, using the hand-hoes to smooth their footprints. After passing
through the hole in the fence, they reconstructed it as best they
could using the rope to "relink" the chain linked fence.
Since it was behind a bush in a remote area of the nursery, they
figured it wouldn't be seen immediately.
Outside the fence, Steve and Rusty
washed the coal off their faces and arms using the water and paper
towels. They packed everything back into their backpacks, changed
their clothes, and biked back to Rosemary's house, where the two took
turns showering. Finally, they washed and dried their soiled clothes
and returned the tools. They never found out what happened and no
one every discovered who did it, but they shared a sense of victory,
justice, and satisfaction.
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